Michigan Football has a big impact on Super Bowl once again

Michigan football had a big impact on the Super Bowl once again in 2020 and it was about more than just a Frank Clark sack in the fourth quarter.

Going into the Super Bowl, you knew that if the Kansas City Chiefs were going to win, a former Michigan football player — Frank Clark — might have something to say about it.

After all, Clark is the Chiefs best pass rushers and it seems like outside of offensive skill players, few guys can impact the big game quite like a pass rusher with a timely sack or too.

We all saw what Brandon Graham, another former Michigan football player did to Tom Brady two years ago in the Super Bowl, forcing a fumble in the fourth quarter and helping the Eagles win their first Super Bowl championship.

Well, something similar happened in the big game Sunday.

As you obviously watched, unless you are one of the strange sports fans that didn’t watch the Super Bowl, Clark sacked Jimmy G on fourth down as the 49ers were trying to take the lead back in the fourth quarter, giving the Ball back to KC, which was able to salt away the win.

It was a defining moment for Clark, who had 11 sacks and 35 tackles for loss during his Michigan career, as well as 43 sacks in five NFL seasons including eight with the Chiefs in 14 games this past season.

Clark’s sack wasn’t the play that won the game or anything, but still, it’s a play that Kansas City fans will always remember. It was also cool as a Michigan football fan to see a former Wolverine win a title and have such a big role in doing so. You know, a Wolverine outside of Tom Brady.

However, that wasn’t the only Michigan connection in the Super Bowl. The other came from Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy who gave credit to the 1948 Wolverines and a play from the Rose Bowl as his imagination for a touchdown run by Damien Williams.

The video in Kevin Boilard’s tweet shows the two plays side-by-side and sure enough, you can see where Bieniemy got the idea. He had the offense shift at the last second and then had the center snap the ball directly to Williams who scored a touchdown.

Of course, that had nothing to do with the wizardry of Pat Mahomes in the fourth quarter but it was still cool to see the Wolverines get a little recognition on Super Sunday.